On the last weeks the governments of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have presented to their national parliaments their Budgets for the period 2016/2017. This follows coordinated efforts by the member countries of the East African Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda), where the financial year starts on the 1st of July.

From a VAT perspective, the main proposals contained in each budget for financial year 2016/2017 are the following:

Kenya

The Finance Bill 2016 was presented to the Parliament on the 8th of June. According to the Budget Statement and to a press release by the National Treasury the VAT measures to be adopted are the following:

Extend the transition period for imposition of VAT on petroleum products by another year. The imposition of VAT on petroleum products was supposed to start in September 2016, but it will be postponed for one more year;

Exempt national park entry fees from VAT to boost tourism sector;

Exempt commissions earned by tour operators from VAT;

Exempt raw materials for manufacture of animal feeds from VAT to make animal feeds affordable to farmers and to attract more manufacturers to invest in the Sector; and

The Finance Act 2016 was presented to Parliament on 3rd of June and the first reading was held on the 10th of June. According to the Part XV of the Finance Act 2016 some of the VAT measures to be adopted are the following:

Remove the current VAT exemption applicable to the supply of certain tourism services; and

Remove the VAT exemption applicable to the provision of certain fee-based financial services.

Uganda

The Budget for the period 2016/2017 was presented to Parliament on the 8th of June. According to the Budget Speech delivered by the Minister of Finance before the National Parliament, the main VAT measures to be adopted are the following:

Exempt from VAT supplies for aid-funded projects made by domestic suppliers and producers;

Allow relief from VAT on business inputs for producers of solar, wind and geothermal energy; and

VAT imposed on imported services used by business process outsourcing (BPO) companies will be refunded at the time of export or offset, if the services are consumed in Uganda.

As the financial year for all the countries in the East African Community starts on the 1st of July, it is expected that the respective budgets will be approved any time soon, and that most of the changes will be effective from the referred date. At this point it is not certain that all the measures proposed in the budgets will be approved, so close monitoring of this issue is advisable.

America has heard many presidential campaign speeches over the past few months, but none quite as diverse and comical as this one.

Jack Aiello, 14, was chosen to prepare a speech for his graduation from Thomas Middle School in Arlington Heights, Illnois. To avoid an overdone topic, Jack put a topical spin to a speech made year after year.

"I've decided that since we're in the middle of an election, I would do my speech in the style of some of the 2016 presidential candidates, along with President Obama," Jack began.

In his first bit, he took on the persona of the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

"We’re learning languages from Spain, from France, from Germany and China," he said, yelling the word 'China.' "You know, people say I don’t like China, I love China. I mean, I love China. I mean, I have so many terrific friends in China."

Next, Jack welcomed Texas Senator Ted Cruz to the stage, where he opens his speech with a sweeping, "Let me start by saying this: God bless the great school of Thomas," as Cruz normally does in his speeches.

After 'President Barack Obama' delivered a speech about sports and recreational activities at the school, he said, "Now I'd like to pass it on toSecretary Hillary Clinton."

"Thank you President Obama," Jack begins in Clinton's voice, being sure to place emphasis on all the syllables that Clinton would. "I'd like to start by thanking the great hardworking teachers of Thomas Middle School."

Of course, when Vermont Senator 'Bernie Sanders' took the stage, he first complimented the quality of the cafeteria food, with one exception: "We need to make them free."

"Why should students have to pay for the whole cinnamon roll — doesn't make any sense," he continues. "What we need is a cinnamon roll revolution."

His mother Carla Aiello said in an interview with NBC Chicago, "With the election, he watches the news clips and he just absorbs everything," adding that the graduating 8th grader has been doing impersonations since he was very young.

"If you were to ask him what he really wants to do, he really truly does want to be president someday," his father John Aiello told NBC Chicago. "A politician or a comedian, which the lines do sometimes blur." [INSIDE EDITION]

Jason Ho, Adam Broniewski and Azan Jamal are using their engineering talents to create windmills in Tanzania.

A group of laid off Calgarians are engineering new ways to be useful in the world.

While the city’s economy remains in a whirlwind state, Jason Ho is working with the U.N. to design windmills for Tanzania.

Ho was laid off from his job in October, and was looking for a way to do something useful with his time, and his engineering skills, so he hopped on the U.N. volunteer website.

There he found out about the situation in Tanzania, where infrastructure is needed to irrigate land and pull up drinking water.

“Right now, they’re using ropes and buckets and sometimes these wells go down 200 feet into the ground,” he said. “They’re drinking from untreated well water.”

The windmill will work like a pump, helping the people there substantially.

Ho was paired up with a few other engineers from Calgary, including Adam Broniewski, Alex Yuen and Azan Jamal, whose grandmother grew up near the region where the windmills will eventually go.

The Calgary engineers are trying to make the designs and simple and straightforward as possible, to make them easy and safe to construct. They’re looking at things like blade angle, pressure calculations and how much concrete to pour.

They’re also adding to contributions from engineers in a few different countries from around the world – making these windmills a true international effort of brain power.

“There are lot of smart people who ended up being laid off,” said Ho. “This was just a chance for us to do something a bit more meaningful and use these skills somewhere else.”

Once the designs are finalized and the windmills are built, Ho plans on visiting Tanzania, to see the fruits of his labour in-person.

New revelations of mismanagement of public funds have emerged following a special audit directed by the Minister for Education, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, Professor Joyce Ndalichako, into the Higher Education Student's Loans Board (HESLB).

She has, therefore, issued two weeks to HESLB to take immediate action against suspended officials, including disciplinary and legal actions and act on all issues raised in the special audit report and provide her with a report of the action taken.

Briefing journalists on the special audit's preliminary findings at the ministry's premises yesterday, Prof Ndalichako revealed shocking high levels of embezzlement of public funds, including double allocation of loans, poor records of outstanding loans from students and exorbitant allowances allocated for HESLB officials.

The special audit was directed by the minister following improper handling of loans amounting to 3.2bn/- by the HESLB Executive Director, Mr George Nyatega, who was shown the exit door early in February.

It has, however, revealed more rot in the HESLB, the minister pointed out, adding that there are students in high learning institutions who have received loans from both HESLB and Zanzibar Higher Education Students' Loans Board (ZHESLB).

On outstanding loans, the minister explained that HESLB records show that a smaller amount compared to the actual amount of outstanding loans was owed to the loans board by students "For example, 262 students received higher education loans amounting to 10,782,772,831.00/-; but the records show that the students are supposed to refund 5,535,738,393.65/-, which is half of what they received," she explained.

Another 247 students had refunded earlier loans by 25 per cent - 270,894,198/- but the HESLB records show the said student had not paid. But during the special audit, the students presented proof of payment - and when the loans board officials were confronted about it, they acknowledged that the payments had in fact been made.

Prof Ndalichako noted by having two separate systems of allocation of loans to students and the one holding records of outstanding loans from students, stressing that the outstanding record does not even have important information such as guarantors and addresses of the benefactor.

The special audit report shows that a total of 105,202 student, whose loans amounting to 712,872,822,863/- have matured have not started refunding the loans. The students received loans between 1994 and 2015.

Drivers are stunned that they never knew this. If you drive less than 50 mi/day, you better read this

In the case of another 2,619 students with mature loans amounting to 14,468,564,375/-, records show that the students were registered in two different universities and received loans in both institutions.

In one university, the students received 7,126,694,729/- and while the other one got 7,341,869,646/-. The HESLB has also contracted different agents who are paid a commission to identify loan defaulters.

Prof Ndalichako noted that the agents have identified 462 loan defaulters, whose records show a much larger amount of 3,670,698,220/- compared to the actual debt owed of 2,842,350,188/-, a deficit of 828,348,032/-.

"This increment also means the commission paid to the agents will also go up. The most surprising thing is that the name of the agents contracted; one is called Machomengi Company, which is not even registered with BRELA, the other three which are registered under BRELA; one of them, called Sikonge International, is registered as Hardware and the two others belong to one person.

These are the agents contracted to identify loan defaulters," she noted. Prof Ndalichako said the report also found out 20 ghost students who are not in any high learning institutions but are receiving loans from HESLB, noting that the list of students to receive loans that is presented to banks is different from the list that is filed in the HESLB records.

"An in-depth audit is still going on to identify ghost students and we are liaising with the banks to give us reports of all accounts receiving loans from HESLB," she explained, cautioning all banks that those that will refuse to collaborate with the government will stop issuing loans through those financial institutions.

"For instance, we found out that two students with different names were using one account number.

How can this be possible? So the banks must give us information used to open the accounts to enable us identify these people. This exercise is currently underway and we are working with PCCB officials," she said, promising to provide a report within the next three weeks.

She warned those who had been mismanaging higher learning loans both at the HESLB and higher learning institutions that their days are numbered, vowing disciplinary and legal action against everyone involved.

Prof Ndalichako revealed that hefty allowances were being paid within the HESLB using money meant for student's loans and profits accrued from fixed deposits, noting that housing allowance is pegged at 30 per cent of a worker's salary, 20 per cent for fuel and 10 per cent for repairs.

She directed all executive directors and heads of department and institutions to ensure public funds are appropriately utilised.

Description: Tanzania dairy sector is regarded as a small industry with unpleasing background due to failed privatization of the three state-owned companies in 1990s. There are few ongoing dairy companies and some have enjoyed the less local rivalry but challenging market. Despite huge potential in the dairy sector, several factors have led to underutilization, low production, low consumption, low value added to the final products and overall development of the sector.

The move which paves way for Bank M to open business in Kenya, will see Oriental Commercial Bank change its name to M Oriental Commercial Bank Limited.

According to the CBK, M Holdings has also been allowed to form a non-operating holding company, which only invest in other companies.

“The Central Bank of Kenya announces approval of an application by M Holdings Limited to form a Non-Operating Holding Company under Section 13 (1) (e) of the Banking Act, and the acquisition of a 51 percent stake in the shareholding of Oriental Commercial Bank Limited,” the CBK announced on Thursday.

The transaction and consequent changes are expected to be completed by September this year.

The approvals come days after Bank M announced plans to set shop in Kenya a move that will it being the first bank to enter the Kenyan market.

Bank M is a commercial bank licensed and regulated by the Bank of Tanzania since February 2007 and is focused on corporate and investment banking.

“Bank M is the first bank from Tanzania to enter the Kenyan banking sector. Its entry into the Kenyan market strengthens the ongoing East African Community (EAC) integration,” the CBK noted.

Oriental Commercial Bank Limited which has nine branches on the other hand was licensed in 1991 and is ranked position 37 in terms of market share as at December 2015.